hackLegend of the Twilight Dragon
by Redwarz
Summary: A new player to "The World", Crossel, finds himself trapped in a strange conspiracy involving himself and the character Tsunami. This is an original story set in the .hack universe
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

"**The World"**

"Please wait…"

Those words had been displayed on Kent's screen for quite some time since he had installed a new computer game. This game was all his friends and co-workers ever talked about. The game had originated from Japan and made its way over seas about a year after its release. This game was called "The World:" Kent sat in his chair awaiting the game to finish its installation.

He ran his hands through his dark hair as he waited impatiently. Kent was about average build and 6' 5" tall and he worked at a small office about 3 blocks away from his home. His life was boring to say the least. Online games were his main hobby. He liked to become someone else and escape reality. Kent was about to stand to go grab himself another coke when the words vanished from his screen.

The title screen popped up and he was presented with a menu. Kent clicked through the menu and found his way to the account creation screen. Kent held his eye up to the retinal scanner and all his information was registered automatically. Kent was now on a screen that asked him to come up with an account name.

"C...r…o...s…s…e…l…"

Kent typed carefully into the box. Kent was finally given a chance to create his character he noticed that he had several classes and races to choose from. Kent scanned the list and figured he should pick a race first.

"Human, Beast, Darkling, or Harpy…" Kent thought to himself.

Kent decided to stick with what he knew best he placed his cursor over the word "Human" and clicked. Kent watched his character slowly come to life he chose from a variety of clothes and hairstyles and finally had the look he wanted. He was wearing a red robe with some minor armor on the shoulders and wrists. His hair was dark blue along with his eyes.

"This should do." Kent thought.

Kent then proceeded to look over the various classes he could choose from.

"Blade Brandier, Shadow Warlock, Harvest Cleric, Steam Gunner, Adept Rogue, Stealth Ninja, Blood Mage, Twin Blade, Danse Macabre, Lord Partisan, " A few others seemed to be blocked out they must be reserved for higher-level players he thought. Kent clicked on Blood Mage and read the description.

"A spell user that specializes in using their own blood, the blood of allies, or the blood of monsters as a catalyst for spells and arts. Starting Abilities: Absorb Starting Equipment: Staff and Robe"

Kent looked pleased with the description and it sounded like it would be interesting to play he confirmed his decision and his screen blanked for a moment.

After his screen came back on the words "Please put on M2D and pick up controller" were displayed. Kent reached into the game box and pulled out the Micro Monocle Display that had come with the game. He plugged it in and put it on. It took Kent's eye a few minutes to adjust but when they did he noticed his was now looking around a strange city with many people running around him.

"Is this 'The World'"? He thought to himself.

Kent took a few steps forward and opened a huge set of double doors and found himself over looking a large city and a long bridge. People around him seemed to be talking and running around talking to various shop owners and such. Kent was overwhelmed where would he begin? His friends wouldn't be online until much later and he had no idea how anything worked in this world.

Kent began walking across the bridge when he noticed a strange man dressed in black armor sitting on the ground. Kent approached him and tried to get his attention.

"Hello." Kent mumbled into his microphone. The man looked up at him and gave him a puzzled stare.

"Hey, what can I do for you?" The man replied to Kent

"Well, you see I just started this game and…" Kent tried to get out more but the man cut him off before he could finish.

"You want me to teach you how to play?" The man on the ground asked.

A smirk went across Kent's face and he replied with a cheerful "Yes!" The man stood from his sitting position.

"Well then I'm Tsunami the Adept Rogue." The man said to Kent

"I'm Crossel the Blood Mage." Crossel replied.

Crossel was Kent's character name and its what people in "The World" know him as. Tsunami began to go over the basics of the game with Crossel. Tsunami taught Crossel about the various shops and the Chaos Gate. After about an hour or so Crossel was finally caught up on how the towns worked.

"So, Crossel I think your ready to fight in a dungeon." Tsunami said to Crossel.

"Alright, we use the Chaos Gate then right?" Crossel asked Tsunami.

"Yeah, normally you would invite me to your party before we left but I'm already in it so we can skip that step I showed you earlier how to select area words so lets travel to 'Long Forgotten Maiden' and get started with combat training."

Crossel inputted the specified words and approached the gate. The Chaos gate warped Crossel and Tsunami to a field and directly infront of them was some monsters.

"Alright Crossel, I want you to engage those creatures. There are a few ways you can deal damage to them. The first is your basic attack. Your basic attack will allow you to hit with your equipped weapon but because you are a spell class I suggest only relying on it when you need to. The second would be your magic. Your spells are your main source of damage and can help you and your parties greatly because you just started you probably only have the Blood Mage beginners spell Absorb. This spell draws HP from monsters and gives it to you or a party member. The third way it with an Art. Arts are combo techniques that use your equipped weapon as to attack. Arts can add various effects to the damage you do. You should have no Arts right now because you just started and Arts are rare for Blood Mages." Tsunami explained to Crossel

Crossel listened carefully to everything he was being told and took it all in. Crossel felt he was ready to battle so you walked up close to the creatures in front of him and Tsunami. When Crossel got within a certain range the creatures began to attack him. Crossel began to attack the enemies with his spell and physical attacks until a strange purple light was orbiting it.

"Crossel that light is a Rengeki using a Art or Spell now will activate the Rengeki. There are a few types of Rengeki you can use but the three you will see the most are Offensive, Defensive and Support. Offensive is displayed by a purple light and usually increases the damage of the art or spell used when it's active. Defensive is indicated by a blue light. When an Art or Spell is used and Defensive Regenki is active the Art or Spell will increase your party's defense for the duration of the battle. Support is displayed by a yellow light and causes your Art or Spell to receive some kind of healing bonus when its used." Tsunami explained.

Tsunami had just finished explaining when the monsters dropped to the ground and Crossel continued walking.

The two walked around slaying monsters for a little while when they finally came to the boss monster of the field. This creature was a large goblin with a drill attached to one hand and a gun in the other. It was Level 5, which was stronger than the other Level 1 creatures. Crossel figured he had a good idea of how to beat it so he ran in with Tsunami and began attacking.

Crossel began attacking the creature with his staff dealing little to no damage and Tsunami stood back healing Crossel when he needed it. Crossel was determined to finish the fight on his own so that he could show that he was ready to explore this new game on his own. Crossel backed up as the creature swung at him with its drill. Crossel watched it move carefully and as it came in range he fired off his Absorb spell stealing some of its health and giving it to him. He did this a couple of more times when a white light engulfed the creature. Crossel fired off another Absorb and shouted "Rengeki!" as he did when the spell connected a girl dressed in white appeared in front of the boss. The girl held out her hand and began to draw life from the boss and channel it into Crossel. Crossel was amazed at how powerful the spell was. Tsunami didn't show it but he too was amazed at what was happening before him. Tsunami walked up to Crossel as the girl vanished and the boss fell to the ground

"Crossel that was a rarer form of Rengeki called Summon Rengeki. When a Summon Rengeki activates only a spell can trigger it. The spell will call out its hidden power and summon a creature that will use the spell once at its highest level. Its very uncommon to see one used but, when it is used it can change the tide of any battle." Tsunami explained to Crossel

Crossel looked over to Tsunami. "Is this the treasure?"

Crossel held out a staff that the creature had dropped it was a level 4 staff it was silver with a red gem on top and a dragon wrapped around it.

Tsunami smirked "Yeah, that's a Dragon Rod, a Blood Mage weapon, it will grant you the spell 'Blood Rage' regardless if you've learned it or not. 'Blood Rage' causes you to injure yourself for 30 of your HP in exchange for changing your equipped weapon into a sword that increases your damage by the amount your staff increases your MP. It's a very powerful ability especially when a enemy is immune to magic"

Crossel smiled and equipped his new weapon. The two walked over to a transporter and left the dungeon returning to town. Crossel looked over to Tsunami and thanked him for all his help. Tsunami let off a grin and walked away from Crossel after giving him his Member Address and with that Crossel scratched his head and decided that he would log out for the day.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

**Sind**

"Blood Rage!!"

Those words echoed through a dark chamber filled with monsters. Crossel had decided to explore a dungeon on his own today so that he could gain some levels. He had done well through the whole thing up until the room just before the beast statue a large group of creatures seemed to be waiting for him. Every monster in the group was either Magic Resistant or Immune this left Crossel with one other choice; use the staff he found the day before to finish them. Crossel's health dropped from 110 to 78 and his body became engulfed in a red light. His staff began to change into a sword that had a red gem fastened in the hilt and the hilt was designed to look like a dragon.

Crossel gripped his sword tightly in his hand and looked over at the monsters progressing towards him. He dashed forward and began slashing them dealing great amounts of damage. He hit them a few more times when a Offensive Rengeki appeared around one of the monsters.

"I wonder…" He thought to himself.

Crossel opened up his Art wheel and there it was one Art was available for use. Crossel smirked and dashed forward.

"Rengeki, Razors edge!" Crossel shouted as he made contact with the enemy.

His sword cut through the monsters with great ease and left them on the ground dead from his powerful strike. Crossel searched the area around them for any items that may be laying around he was unsuccessful in his search so he proceeded to the beast statue that was just up ahead.

Crossel entered the room with the beast statue and opened the chest hoping for something that would be worth his while. Crossel however, only ended up finding some armor that he was unable to equip because of the class restrictions. Crossel walked to the left and teleported out of the dungeon using the Gate. Just as Crossel had left the room another character entered the chamber where he had been standing.

Sind was an Azure Knight one of the most powerful classes in the game only awarded to those who had been playing since the Azure Knight Campaign. The Azure Knight class specialized in both magic and close combat and fought using a strange blue fire. The class was so rare that it was sometimes mistaken as a virus by the lower level players. Sind was dressed in black armor and carried a bow with him. His hair was a blood red and his eyes were the same.

Sind had been watching Crossel as he explored the dungeon. Sind stepped into the clearing and walked up to the empty chest. He unsheathed his bow and readied an arrow.

"You bastard, you can come out now." Sind yelled into the chamber

A strange man cloaked in darkness floated out from beneath the beast statue and stared at Sind. Sind fired a arrow directly towards him as it traveled it became engulfed in the blue fired Azure Knights were famous for and nailed the man square in the head. The man lifted his arm slowly and pulled it from his face and turned it into a ball of energy. He held out his hand and fired it toward Sind. Sind rolled to the side and let the ball hit the ground where he had been standing.

"Sind, you can never win." The man spoke quietly

Sind an arrow back and let it fly off towards the man only this time right before contact it split into 5 arrows and nailed the figure in the chest. The man was paralyzed and a strange white light began to engulf him. Sind smiled and readied his bow.

"Rengeki, Barrage of Arrows!" Sind shouted as he fired another shot

The shot connected and a summon appeared holding a brilliant gold bow. The man cloaked in darkness smirked and cut the summon down as if it was nothing. Sind was now frightened and ran quickly towards the gate. He teleported out and went back to Mac Anu.

Sind traveled Mac Anu and went back to his Home. Home's are essentially bases for guilds and they act as storage and a meeting place for the members. Sind's guild was called Canard he had become the leader after the previous one quit the game. Canard was basically a guild designed to help new players and it had become quite famous after the previous leader became the emperor of the Demon Palace, Holy Palace and Dragon Palace back in the R: 2 days but, ever since Sind had become leader it had sort of declined and gone back to being a regular guild. Sind sat patiently as people came and left to go about their business. He along with 3 other players were trainers who helped out new players. They were the only permanent members and the others were just newbies looking for help.

Sind was becoming tired of the game and wanted to adventure again like he did years ago but now it was boring nothing seemed to be a challenge, that's when he read about a legendary hacker who was killing high level players on sight. Sind decided he would be the one to put this hacker in his place but finding him was no easy task and when he finally did his arrow attacks seemed to do nothing.

"Did you get him Sind?" a female voice asked him

Sind looked up and standing over him was a female Werewolf dressed in blue clothes. She had yellowish hair and bright green eyes. Sind had a very disappointed look on his face.

"No Natalia, he was much stronger than we originally thought." Sind replied

The girl, Natalia, who had originally had a big smile on her face was now frowning. She sat down on the steps beside him.

"Sind, you should have brought me with you I could have helped you out." Natalia said.

"Natalia it wouldn't have helped if I brought you because you don't know any decent healing magic. If I was to bring anyone I should have brought Tira." Sind replied in a serious tone.

Natalia stood up and walked towards the door to the Home. Just as she was about to leave a male Shadow Warlock dressed in black entered and stared at Natalia and Sind. The Shadow Warlock had long white hair and eyes black as night. He stood still staring at the two when finally Sind opened his mouth

"Nyx, what do you want?" He asked the Shadow Warlock

"A guy named Tsunami says he wants to meet with the us in a dungeon." Nyx replied to Sind.

"Tsunami? I've never heard of him." Natalia said.

"What are the keywords?" Sind asked Nyx

"I think they were 'Chronicling Despaired Melody'" Nyx told him.

"Alright, does Tira know?" Natalia questioned.

"Yeah she's meeting us there." Nyx answered.

The three left their Home and invited each other to a party. The three walked up to the Chaos Gate through the crowded streets and made their way to the indicated keywords.

The dungeon was a standard field filled with lower level monsters. The terrain type was grassland and the weather was bright and sunny. The monsters were no trouble at all for the group because they were all experienced veterans. They traveled around when they finally collected all 3 symbols the doors to the temple located in the center of the field opened. The group wandered into the dark temple with their weapons drawn, as they got closer to the Beast Statue they could hear a voice echo down the chamber.

"Die you bastard!!" The voice rang out.

Sind was certain the voice was that of their companion Tira who had gone in front of them. When they finally got in eye sight they saw Tira battling a Adept Rogue in what looked like a one sided battle. The Rogue's stats seemed to be off the charts and had a complete skill list for all his weapons to make things worse. He seemed to be able to switch between many weapons not just the standard three. Sind didn't hesitate he aimed his bow for the Rogue and fired a barrage of arrows towards him hitting every shot dead on. Nyx figured this was his time to lay down some magic for support and try to take the heat off Tira so he fired high level flame spells towards the Rogue and again hit every shot dead on. Natalia wasn't far behind, she rushed in and began beating the Rogue with a flurry of punches and special skills. After 5 minutes of nonstop damage Sind checked the Rogue's health to see why he wasn't dying sure enough, his health meter read "Tsunami: 4(# / 3#()M" then Sind had enough proof he knew that this guy was a major hacker. Tsunami was beginning to become tired of this battle so he stepped backwards and let out a large explosion of darkness knocking everyone down to the group and lowering their HP to 1. Sind yelled as loud as he could into his microphone.

"Everyone, gate out!!" He shouted

Tira, Nyx, and Natalia heard him loud and clear and began to run towards the gate crystal but before they could reach it Tsunami teleported in front of them.

"My, my don't go rushing off now." Tsunami chuckled.

Tsunami began to glow a mysterious dark light and he called out a large dragon that was bigger than most of the room he opened his mouth wide and fired a fireball hitting both Nyx and Tira. He began to aim at Sind and Natalia when a beast type character burst into the room. The beast's fur was a bright red and he wore gold armor with some orange clothes. The beast had a very muscular build and stood with great importance.

"I see, so there are still hackers in 'The World.'" The beast mumbled to himself

The beast pulled a large blade out and leaped into the air slicing the dragon into two with great ease. Tsunami was left standing in its place. Tsunami pulled out a new sword that had a strong energy emanating from it. He pointed it toward the beast and laughed.

"So the system Admin. Comes to kill me himself how…interesting." Tsunami laughed

The Admin. looked over at Tsunami and shook his head. He held his sword pointed towards Tsunami and both rushed at each other simultaneously and clashed swords. Tsunami seemed to over-power him with great ease and pushed the Admin back. Tsunami was left staring at the Admin standing in front of Natalia and Sind as if to protect them from any harm.

"Well it seems even the legendary blade, The Avatar Killer, is no match for my own sword, Relinquish!" Tsunami shouted.

The Admin turned to Sind and Natalia slowly and stared at them.

"Both of you, run, I will be with you shortly." He said to them.

Sind and Natalia fled the chamber with great ease as the beast managed to hold off Tsunami. The beast and Tsunami battled for minutes in the chamber with Tsunami always' having a leg up on him. Tsunami eventually blasted the beast with a powerful blast causing the beast to make a hasty retreat.

Natalia and Sind arrived in Mac Anu and stood at the Chaos Gate waiting for the Admin to arrive eventually he came through the portal battered and wounded from the battle he had with Tsunami. Sind was the first to approach him.

"Admin, who was that guy?" Sind asked the beast.

The beast stared at Sind and locked eyes with him.

"Don't call me that call me by my name it's Gaz." The beast replied

"Alright then, Gaz, who was that guy?" Sind asked again

"That man is the legendary hacker Tsunami. I suggest both of you stay away from him. You will never be able to win against him."

Sind gave Gaz a blank stare. "I've never heard of this Tsunami guy." He said to him.

"Good and it should remain that way. Continue running the Canard guild and leave this matter to the Admins"

With that the beast logged out and Sind and Natalia made their way back to the guild Home. Sind however, wouldn't let it go that easily the first question on his mind: how did he know they ran Canard.

Over at a shop just left of the Chaos gate Crossel was doing some shopping as this conversation was taking place. Crossel was confused he wasn't sure if this Tsunami was the same Tsunami he had hung out with or a imposter. Crossel decided that his first task would be to ask the owners of Canard.


End file.
